The type of plane Pappy Henderson flew was the C-54 skymaster. Did a C-54 carry alien bodies or debris from Roswell? (Image from Wikipedia)

Chapter
20: The most trusted pilot

By Timothy Printy Ó
1999

Frank Kaufmann stated that the most trusted pilot at RAAF was
W.O. "Pappy" Henderson and it was he that transported
the materials from RAAF to Wright Field. Henderson was never
interviewed because had had died before the authors could
find out about him. However, they all interviewed his wife Sappho
who stated her husband never told her anything until he saw the
story being published in the tabloids. According to her, he flew
the wreckage in a C-54 to Wright Field in Ohio. This is in
disagreement with several stories told about Henderson. Kaufmann
stated he flew a B-25 and not a C-54! Randle and Schmitt state
that in a letter from a "Vere McCarty", Henderson had
told McCarty about flying bodies to Wright Field at a 1982
reunion of WWII flight crewman. Randle and Schmitt do not
elaborate on who Vere McCarty is so we are again left with
another unverifiable claim.

In Crash at Corona, we get another version of events
from a friend, John Kromschroeder, who states Henderson talked
about transporting the wreckage and bodies. Kromschroeder reports
seeing Pappy displaying parts of the saucer. John describes it
as, "Gray, lustrous metal resembling aluminum, lighter in
weight and much stiffer. [We couldn't] bend it ...edges sharp and
jagged" (Friedman and Berlinner 126). We are told by
Friedman and Berlinner that the piece could easily be in the
files Pappy had left behind but there appeared to be no strong
desire to locate it. When looking at the description it does not
even sound like the mystery metal so prominent in the Roswell
folklore. Hendersons wife and daughter recalled most of the
C-54 story and mentioned bodies that were, "...small with
large heads for their size" and "...small and
pale, with slanted eyes and large heads" (Friedman and
Berlinner 127).

We are given the picture that everyone knew that Henderson was
the most trusted pilot on base and that he was an adept pilot,
who could fly any aircraft. However, all the pilots on base were
probably very trustworthy. After all, it was a nuclear bomber
base. Are the writers stating that only Henderson could be
trusted to keep this secret or that he was so skilled as a pilot that he could be trusted not to crash the plane? We learn a little more about Henderson from the
pilots of the 509th. According to Kent Jeffrey:

During my extensive conversations with pilots from the
509th, I spoke with several who knew Henderson and remembered
his having discussed the incident. Apparently Henderson, a
C-54 transport pilot at the time, did fly some of the debris
out of Roswell, possibly to Wright Patterson. Jesse Mitchell,
one of the 509th pilots at the time and a retired lieutenant
colonel, told me that Henderson told him that he never saw
the debris and he had no idea what it was. Mitchell was a
good friend of Henderson's and almost decided to go into the
roofing business with him in Roswell after Henderson left the
service. Another former member of the 509th, Sam McIlhaney,
also a retired lieutenant colonel who knew Henderson well,
told me that they used to talk about the incident
occasionally while sitting around in the hangar. According to
McIlhaney, Henderson considered the whole matter a big joke
and used to kid about it. (Jeffrey Online)

Kal Korff talked to a friend of Pappys, Johnathan Smith,
who mentioned that Henderson often displayed a piece of V-2
fragment around and claimed it was from a "crashed
UFO" (Korff 95). Randle and Schmitt casually mention
that Henderson had this piece of debris in his collection. Again,
if this piece were so special, the investigators would have paid
good money to search the files. It seems that if the piece
existed, it would turn out to be from a terrestrial source and
weigh negatively into the Henderson myth.

Hendersons mission from Roswell to Wright field must
have been an incredible flight since there are no personnel, who
claim to have been on this particular flight. However, there are
those who claim to have been on other flights that Pappy
supposedly flew.